Up for sale

I've finally got the ad put up on carsales.com.au. Decided to go premium since it's advertised at carpoint.com.au too!
I took the pics at the abandoned warehouse at Merrylands Station. The pics came out great, besides the fact that there was too much light coming in (I took the photos at noon... I originally planned early in the morning or in the afternoon but was busy during those periods :@). Here are some of my favourites:

Updates - nearly sell-worthy

Just a few updates - the car is slowly getting into selling-mode. I've refitted the duckbill lip back on along with the orange side indicators, badged grille (needs painting) and the factory Enkei alloys. The VR6 lip and smoked side indicators will be going to Louis, and the debadged grille and BBS RS wheels have been given to Pedro (in exchange for $$ of course). I've still got to replace the rear taillights with the stockies and also refit the pencil tray back on. Pedro suggested it, as I could get more $$ from selling the glovebox separately. Fair enough!

I haven't got pics yet though, but I reckon I will be able to take some on Monday, and if not then, then definitely by Wednesday. Found two potential photoshoot sites though. One is near my local train station (Merrylands) - it's essentially a two-wall storehouse, with the corrugated iron roof and walls that give it the deserted, empty look. The other one is slightly similar but is in an open space. Backdrop is a very old tram and the train tracks leading to Redfern, while the two sides are old train "hangars". One of them is currently used as an art gallery for digital media, which I'm studying at the moment. The entrance to it is photo-shoot worthy too.

This would be part of the "Fixes" post but since I've only done one minor fix, it doesn't really deserve its own post :P Side mouldings were starting to pop off as I broke one or two tabs when I took them off for a respray ages ago. I finally got around to putting them back on permanently with some double-sided tape, which has been long suggested by members in the VWVortex forums. It works a treat. As with the mechanicals, it's still misfiring, though sometimes I hear a bit of a creak at low RPMs when I start moving. Very distinctive and coming from the rear passenger side. I think that's where the fuel filter is? Anyway, I'll be getting new spark plugs and leads when Pedro goes to Tooleys for his shit, and he has a battery recharger so I'll be able to use that to temporary fix the low battery charge problem.

I think that's about it.

Wheel repair

So I've written about this before - I was thinking of repairing my factory 14" alloys, and finally got around to it. So far I have sanded the imperfections down and prepared the surface for re-painting. Some of the deeper chips I did not bother fixing - I had thought of filling it in with metal epoxy but decided against it. I am planning on painting the alloys satin black anyway so most chips can't be seen. I have sanded them down enough anyway. All gutter rash has been eliminated but the lip surface is now slightly irregular. You can't really see it (well, hard to tell since some parts are sanded down to bare metal and some parts still have slight paint) but it can be felt. I'm not really too fussed about this though as they'll be put on to replace the BBS which I'm selling. I'm sure the next owner of the car will want to get bigger wheels anyway.

21/08/2007

The wheels are done! To be honest, I could have done so much better. The layering of coats were pretty bad on my part. The photos show some overspray on certain parts of the wheel. Since the centre-caps were sprayed black as well, I had to redo the logo painting. Found some hobby paint that I borrowed from Pedro AGES ago and went for it. A bit on the darker side (Ford Blue) but it was the closest I have to the Enkei blue. Done two coats already and I might add one more coat tomorrow and then wait for it to dry and flash off. The wheels I'm gonna fit back on on Friday when I re-adjust the suspension. Might be a good idea to get an alignment booked in...

Once the wheels are fitted back on, the RS's will be sold to Pedro.

:(

Fixes - Part Two

So the car went in for a service on Friday. Ended up costing $185 so there wasn't a major problem. Aside from the usual oil change, filter change, fluid level checks etc., the mechanic managed to find some minor faults to fix. A loose fuel line was clamped down, and a duct (would he be referring to a vacuum line? I wasn't sure) had come off too, which he had fixed and has it holding shut. That's fixed up the mis-starts. Not the misfire though. May almost definitely be due to a electrical problem now. The battery was tested to be low in potential too, so that's gonna be replaced soon.

There were two faults he found that he could not replace without ordering a VW technician and parts - a faulty ignition switch (Matt was right) and a brittle crank angle sensor wire. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but when the key is in the ignition, you could jiggle it around. The movement is small, but enough to trigger any faults. He found that the engine won't spark if the key isn't turn all the way when starting the car. He and I managed to replicate it, and I can always start the car now. With the crank angle sensor, he told me that the wire connecting it is starting to wear, or in his words getting "brittle". If it's not replaced, it could easily snap and when that happens, the car will stall and won't start. Easy fix but some inconvenient problems if it breaks. Pedro suggested I fix it with tape so I might check it out tomorrow. As for the ignition switch, I think I'll leave it since I know what the problem is and know my way around it. Not suggested I know, but I'll take my chances and let any potential buyers know about it.

On the topic of potential buyers, James, a guy who used to go to the same high school as I did, has expressed his interest for my Golf. He's damn slow at replying to messages though - last I messaged was about the good, the repairs, and the bad. And I also made a price offer. I just hope he'll take it - there's a damn nice VR6 up for sale on VWW!

Basic details are that it's going for $10K with 100K km on the clock. No modifications whatsoever except for the VR6 front lip. All replacements have been from the factory. I asked him about the heater core and timing chain, and he's not sure about the history of them for the car though. So I'm a bit speculative. But I'm also excited at the same time haha.

More pics: 1 2 3 4

Anyway I'm gonna try hard not concentrate too much on car hunting, but more on car selling!

Fixes - Part One

So I finally got fed up of the misfires, mis-starts, f*cked up power window, epileptic headunit and the bunch of wires that kept hitting my foot as I try to brake. Off went the relay and under dash panels, and I find this:
I had no idea what it was, and it had a "1996" sticker on it, so I assumed it was factory, although VW symbols were nowhere to be found.

I went to Matt (a.k.a. Golf Loon on VWW - kinda like the Dan J Reed of our forums) and he confirmed for me that it was not at all factory. This was kind of a giveaway though, as all the wires surrounding it were all spliced and crudely twisted and taped over. Matt went through the wires like I would run through a can of Pringles. I eventually ended with this, with the car running the same (if not better) than before:

Yeah, all those wires that look like they do something, did nothing at all. Matt's guess was that it was an aftermarket immobiliser or alarm of some sort - thing is, I don't have a remote for the car, and the car opens and shuts fine without one. So that's that.

I also got Matt to look at why my headunit was always turning on and off by itself. It was basically resetting on its own again and again - as if there was a loose wire. I managed to get the Clarion headunit out easily with Louis' removal prongs (he actually had a Clarion headunit too and carried those in his car - so convenient, lucky we drove down together!). All wires were very secure, but Matt was able to pinpoint the exact wires causing trouble by manually tugging on each one. He found out there was a problem with the live/ground wires, which were connected to the ignition barrel - jiggling it with the keys in would make it reset. He ended up reconnecting the live wire to one of the many empty connections in the relay box, and voila, it was fixed. He's a bit of a genius, Matt :D

I also went to Pedro's to start swapping some parts over - but that didn't happen. Probably end up doing that in a week or two. He did help me with my window regulator though - the rear driver's finally works now.

Now I've got the misfires and mis-starts to fix. The misfire would be due to an electrical problem, maybe spark plugs or leads (I'm thinking the latter). The mis-starts would be attributed to the fueling, as predicted by my Dad and Matt. Quite obvious with the blatant smell of fuel everytime I start the car. Matt says the fuel pump or fuel pressure regulator. I just hope the total of these fixes won't be too harsh on my pocket :( After all I want to sell it.

It's being booked in for a service tomorrow. Probably have it scheduled for mid next week.